The Act of Finding
by 0xnaomix0
Summary: Mikoto has matured from a hyper cat girl to a cool, collected artist trying to start a new life after the murder of her brother by a rival business. AU Mai/Mikoto
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I claim no rights whatsoever! ... Except for the storyline... I think...

**Warning: **Major OoCness! Major AUness! (maybe) Some WTF?ness! And Shoujo-ai in the future...

* * *

The Act of Finding

_"__You're __**searching**__, for things that don't exist; I mean beginnings. Ends and beginnings - there are no such things.__"__ - Robert Frost

* * *

_

It's been nearly four years since the death of her aniue and she still couldn't figure what it was that went away faster, her childish innocence or her grief for her deceased brother.

Now don't get me wrong, the girl loved her brother more than anything in the world and she would give up the life she had if it meant pleasing her brother. But after the "accident," as it was called on the news, she knew the crying had to stop; she needed to grow up, to live on—not only for herself, but also for her brother.

The twenty-year-old spent most of her days and a few of her nights in her little SUV looking out of tinted glass while roaming the country. The Toyota was a gift from her beloved brother, an early birthday present for doing well in school, as well as the last gift she would ever receive from him; it was lucky… in a _bad_ way. She received the gift just two days after passing a driver's test and acquiring her license; it may not seem very lucky at first, but when you find out that it was her getaway vehicle from the men who killed her brother on the _same_ day it was given, that's luck.

The young woman would travel across forty-eight of the United States—never staying in one place for longer than a few weeks. She stayed in hotels, motels, on peoples' couches, doing any odd job that came her way to continue the simple life she had.

Now it may sound as if this woman was poor, but in actuality she was anything but that. The money she inherited from her older brother's will (he made it when many supervisors of branch offices in the Obsidian Corp. were killed as a precaution, after all Reito was the president of the entire business) was more than enough to allow her to settle down. Add that on to the life insurance each Kanzaki child had since birth and one would have one very wealthy heir to an a multi-billion dollar corporation.

But she chose the exhilarating lifestyle because she was very much wanted, she was wanted dead. Those men were still after her, the heir of the Kanzaki fortune, searching for her even though she had changed her name (_or was in the process of doing it_).

Besides, life on the road was exciting, one never knows what they may come across… or if they'll even have enough gas to come across anything; let alone take them to the nearest gas station.

'_Yes, life on the road was exciting.__'_

The once feral teen, now a matured woman was lying on the roof of her black Toyota RAV4 Sport. She was dressed in a simple black tank top and baggy khaki cargo shorts; her wild raven hair was cut short and messy, and her two long braids that normally hung on her chest were spread across the top of the vehicle. She held her right arm over her face to shield her eyes from the sun, while her left arm was suspended lazily over the edge of the roof. Her long, tanned legs were bent comfortably at the knees with her left foot pointed diagonally towards the sky in a black and white Converse, and her right foot donned a similar red and white shoe (the actual pairs to the shoes probably hidden beneath a seat in the SUV) and was placed on the sunroof.

The lithe girl was quite exhausted; she had been out late on a job and had come back in the early hours of the morning only to notice that there were men in black suits trying to get into her motel room.

The feline-like girl opted to leave all of her belongings but a standard black backpack that contained her wallet, a pre-paid cell phone, a cheap digital camera, a small laptop, a semi-automatic handgun (which she didn't know how to use), a _few_ of her art supplies, and a change of clothes—which she was now wearing. Everything else she owned with the exception of the Mirokus, her cat and her sword (both of which she knew how to use) and of course her escape vehicle, were left in the small motel room.

So after five hours of driving she was out of gas and food, and stuck somewhere between the middle of nowhere and hell.

_Bzzt__Bzzt_

_Meow._

_Tap __tap__tap_

"Miroku?" she held out her hand.

"Meow?" Ooh… he was trying to play innocent.

"I know you've got my phone so just give it here." She sat up, her right hand still open toward the cat.

_Bzzt__Bzzt_

The cat started to walk away with the phone dangling from his mouth.

"Miroku." His owner growled out, "Give me the PHONE!"

She made a lunge toward the cat only to miss it by mere inches; no matter, she achieved in grabbing her dangling cell phone.

"HA!" the woman called out in victory.

She looked down and suddenly she didn't feel so happy, "oomph!" Gravity was an evil thing.

"Meow," there was a twinkle in his evil little eyes; the big tabby had outdone her yet again.

"Mm… hello?" the defeated owner rolled off her stomach and onto her back in the hard dirt.

"Mikoto." It was a low feminine voice.

"Huh?"

"It's your new name Minagi Mikoto," replied the woman on the phone.

"Minagi Mikoto, hmm? I like it!" she nodded her head to emphasize her liking.

"Great _Hikari__-__chan_ meet me at the usual place in Miami, Florida, in… hmm… six hours."

"Okay… but wait Nao!" she realized two things, one she had absolutely no clue where she was, and two, she was out of gas.

"What?" the woman named Nao asked.

"I ran out of gas so I'm stuck on the side of the road…"

"Okay, so give me your location and I'll get someone to pick you up."

"That's just it… I don't exactly know where I am…." the heir replied sheepishly.

"Agh! Hold on… let me call Kikukawa." A sigh was heard before the line went quiet for a few moments.

"Hikari." Nao waited for a reply.

"Mm."

"Yukino says to turn on your transmitter for two minutes then shut it off. It should be enough time for her to get a read on where you are."

"Okay, thanks! See you in 60?"

"Yeah yeah, just don't get killed or something."

The girl lying on the ground laughed at the morbid joke before getting up and pressing a small button on her watch. She pretty much had the same attitude, albeit was not as childish, even if her exuberance was still there. She was the same old Kanzaki Hikari….

_'No… __not anymore, __I'm __Minagi __Mikoto __now__.'_ The woman thought with sad smile.

* * *

**A/N: **BAM suckas!!! i got you!!! okay... maybe not... but how do you guys like it so far?

Okay so let me just mention again... (even though I don't think I mentioned it yet) this is Mikoto-centric! and it WILL be MIKOTO/MAI. You can ask for other pairings... but the chances are... it won't be happening anytime soon.

With that said... I hope you enjoyed this. Please review or whatever so I know if I should continue this crap or not...

-naomi


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **I'm SO SAD!! I uploaded the story so that it would be the thousandth Mai HiME fanfic... and it was for like ten minutes. But now... it's not. -tear- jk!

Sorry if the last chapter confused any of you. Here's another!! Sorry about the length on this one, but I'll try and work on it for the next chapter!

**Warnings and disclaimer still apply!**

* * *

The Act of Finding

_"__You've been walking in circles, searching. Don't drink by the water's edge. Throw yourself in. Become the water. Only then will your thirst end.__" - __Jeanette Berson_

_

* * *

Grumble._

Mikoto realized it wasn't her own stomach, and looked apologetically at her brother's cat—if there was one thing the girl and her deceased brother had in common (more common than blood anyway) it was their love for cats. They would take care of any stray cat that came across their large house. Her own kittens, Jubei and Pochi, were lost in the fire; she wasn't exactly sure if they escaped the flames alive, and she didn't really want to think about it.

"Gosh when are they gonna get here?!" the woman complained from her perch on top of the Toyota.

The large black cat with a white X marking across his forehead and a gold ring in his ear meowed from his curled up position in his master's lap.

Black braids waved as the young woman shook her head.

"You're right. Even with Yukino's help it'd still take a while to find me."

Glancing at her watch to check the time, she noticed something wrong. _'How can it be 00:49:37__?'_

Yellow eyes widened in realization, _'Shit__! I forgot to turn off the transmitter!'_

She jumped up quickly, verbally apologizing to the cat that flew across the roof. She began to search for the cell phone she had been using less than an hour ago.

_'Where is it… c'mon where is it?' _

She threw around what little possessions she had left in her car to search for the tiny mobile.

"Where is _it_??!"

_Bzzt Bzzt._

She could hear it, now she just needed to _see_ it.

_Bzzt Bzzt Bzzzt!_

"Miroku." she looked up at the cat that was seemingly ticked off. "Don't just stand there… HELP ME!"

The tabby simply hissed and turned his back.

"Look I'm sorry! But now's not the time to be getting angry!" the heir pleaded with the cat as she continued searching. "It's a _life_ or _death_ situation!" She made sure to emphasize those two words to illustrate her seriousness.

_Bzzt Bzzt Bzzzt Bzzzzzzt. _

_Jingle._

Mikoto's ears perked up and she gazed at the black feline.

Her cell phone was hanging from the cat's mouth. She reached up to grab, and it flipped it open.

"Yeah, I know I left the transmitter on." She didn't bother with pleasantries, as she had said before: "it was a life or death situation."

"IF YOU KNOW THEN WHY DON'T YOU SHUT IT OFF!" A booming voice could be heard over the phone.

Miroku looked at his master sympathetically as she held the phone away from her now, half-deaf ear.

"H-Haruka-chan…" the computer whiz tried to calm the angry woman, "please don't yell over the phone, Kanzaki-san, I mean, Minagi-san had a simple accident—"

"It wasn't a _simple_ accident! It was a _huge_ miscreant that could cause her her SPRITE!" the boisterous woman yelled out, interrupting the genius.

Okay, she knew Haruka made mix-ups with words sometimes, but really, what did the situation have to do with an _evildoer_ trying to steal the beverage she didn't even _have?_

"Haruka-chan _mistake,_ not _miscreant _and _life,_ not _sprite,_" the soft-spoken woman corrected her loud opposite.

_'How did she mix those four words up…?'_ Mikoto secretly wanted to ask, but remembered the sayings of how "curiosity killed the cat."

"Yukino, that's what I said."

"No you did—" she stopped herself, deciding not to face the brash woman's wrath; she was trying to _live_ after all.

"Minagi-san?"

Realizing it was _her_ name, and that it wasn't the crazy woman with a loud voice, Mikoto placed the phone next to her ear and made a noise as a reply.

"Since your signal was on a lot _longer_ than I asked I was able to retrieve your coordinates faster than usual… but as you probably know, it also allowed Searrs to intercept the signal," the mousy woman stopped her explanation to type some things on her massive computer. "They should be arriving at your location in thirty minutes."

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" the raven-haired girl asked, furious at her own careless mistake.

Something was shuffling and she could hear Nao's voice: "Get your things ready, we sent that ninja guy… girl… whatever, we sent the _ninja_ to go get you twenty minutes ago." She stopped to ask the typing genius a question.

"Yukino says you've got five minutes."

_Click _and the line went dead.

_'Shit.'_ Mikoto cursed. "Miroku, get your things… we're leaving in five."

The cat met its master's golden eyes before jumping off of the roof and into the vehicle through an open window.

The charcoal-haired woman looked around the inside of her car and grimaced at the mess. She sighed and began packing her things into her two bags—the black backpack she managed to save from the motel, and a large silver and white duffel bag that she bought a year or two ago at a sports store somewhere in California.

Four minutes and thirty-two seconds later, a very exhausted cat and its master sat on the roof of the black SUV.

The woman was accomplished; she may not have been a very clean person, but she knew how to pack! Years on the road had taught her how to economize. All of her remaining belongings were fitted tightly into those two bags with some room to spare.

The feline sat next to his master with a navy blue fanny pack containing his few possessions—a ball of yarn, his "kitty booties" (as Mikoto called them), and a collar given to him by his late owner—was placed diagonally across his back staying put due to his bulky, yet muscular body.

There was a gust of wind and the heiress saw her savior before she heard him… or her, as was the traits for most ninjas. Although one tends to not hear them at all—which could not be the case this time when the said ninja was flying an extremely fast and powerful jet plane.

The ninja landed the aircraft yards away from the woman and cat sitting on the roof of the black SUV. After all it was the ninja's job to keep the heiress… and her feline alive. Having them fly off of the vehicle and hit the ground at a high speed from the wind the plane would cause, was not exactly the best way to help them live.

The ninja man-lady jumped out of the cockpit of the jet and landed on the ground gracefullyShe or he reached out and took the woman's heavy bags away with ease, and carried them over to a secret compartment on the bottom of the plane. The ninja then tapped a panel on the side of the aircraft and a key pad appeared. After pressing a series of numbers, a step ladder appeared on the back section of the jet.

"Get in." the ninja motioned with its head toward the door near the rear of the large-but-small plane.

"But what about my car?"

Her savior shook its head, long viridian tresses moving with the motion. "We can't do anything about it right now. I'll call someone to ship it to your new location." The voice was deep, but not too deep; its gender was still up for decision, the ninja was skilled.

_'Wait… my new location?'_

"Where are we going?"

Her question was ignored as Miroku hissed and looked off into the distance.

"Damn, they got here faster than they were supposed to!"

The ninja followed the two gazes to see multiple black cars with silver and gold streaks—the basic Searrs decal.

"Shit," the ninja cursed. "Quickly get into the jet." The ninja pushed the heiress and her cat toward the passenger area of the plane.

"Wait, Miroku." The cat perked up and the ninja looked confused.

"My sword! I need Miroku!" she broke away from the hands trying to urge her towards the plane.

"Ninety seconds," the ninja called out to the girl before returning to the cockpit and starting the airplane.

Mikoto ran. She ran like she was being chased—even if her SUV wasn't far from her, the men were still coming closer.

_'Miroku, Miroku, Miroku.' _She repeated the name in her head like a mantra that would help her recover the sword.

"Where the hell is it?!" the tanned girl searched throughout her vehicle looking for the sword.

"Thirty seconds!" the ninja's deep voice yelled from behind her.

_'The roof!'_ the woman jumped on top of the Toyota and looked for her stubborn sword. _'Found ya!'_

She grabbed the weapon and sprinted to the jet and jumped through the back opening.

Ten, the aircraft began to move.

Nine, the tires were rolling.

Eight, she could hear the sounds of the cars on the asphalt.

Seven, the cars and the jet were picking up speed.

Six, the first gun was fired.

Five, the plane was in the air.

Four, more guns were being shot.

Three, as bullets hit the plane, something was dropped.

Two, there was an explosion.

One, she sighed since her car was still intact.

Zero, she was free…

_'__At least for now anyway.' _Mikoto thought, tightly gripping the sword in her hands.

_Grumble._

She was still hungry.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm pretty sure this chapter sucked, but oh well. There's nothing I'm gonna do about it. If you've got questions, ask them please. I'd rather you let me try and answer, than be confused the whole time reading! 

Thank you for reading... please review!!  
-naomi


End file.
